"What happened?"
King Zhi was seething with rage.
He shoved Queen Dowager off him and charged out wearing nothing but an outer robe, as bare as a cannonball. He split the oncoming shock wave with martial energy, never forgetting to roar, "Guards! Guards! Are you all dead?!"
The smoke and dust had yet to settle.
Then King Zhi heard someone laugh scornfully. "Yes. They're dead."
His expression changed in an instant.
His eyes, usually squeezed into slits by the fat around them, miraculously widened to nearly twice their size. Through the narrow gaps, he could just make out the fear surging in their depths. He recognized that voice. As the smoke thinned, a figure that made his heart quail emerged...
An ominous premonition stirred within him.
"Gongxi Feng En, are you going to rebel?"
The Youth Warlord's armor was distinctive.
He wore snake-patterned bracers and shoulder guards. The waist guard at his hips resembled a snake biting its own tail, its terrifying eyes fixed straight ahead at his enemy as it traced the line of his waist. His skirt armor reached his calves, and black boots covered his feet.
Just standing there, he exerted immense pressure.
A Martial Gall Warrior like this was invaluable if he could be won over. But if he stood against you—and coveted your head—then even a moment's distraction was enough for a fine sheen of cold sweat to break out across your back, soaking through the robe draped over you.
As he looked at the tightly packed snake scales covering Gongxi Chou's armor, dread and a powerful sense of danger surged through his mind. He put on a show of bluster, but Gongxi Chou's next words made him lose his composure. "I bear the Gongxi name. Isn't rebellion only natural?"
There was something else Gongxi